Pieh Tool

Goddard

Outfitting a knifemaking shop doesn't have to cost a fortune and Wayne Goddard shows hobbyists how to do it on a budget. This book is well illustrated with great photos and detailed diagrams showing the design and construction of all the tools needed to make knives. Every knifemaker will want to learn how Goddard can create or acquire knifemaking supplies at almost no cost.

Le Van

Contemporary knifemakers are far more daring than their counterparts from as recently as a generation ago: they’ve become masters of new techniques and technologies, experts in reinterpreting form and function to create sculptural works of art. Flip through this amazing on-the-page gallery, and you’ll discover a dizzying array of styles, from ones that demonstrate simple elegance to others that feature over-the-top embellishment. The collection includes daggers, kitchen knives, hunting knives, combat and folding knives, switchblades, multi-blades, swords, axes, tomahawks, and even a pistol-knife—all honed with fine creative vision.

Chapman

CD

5 MB PDF files for monitor viewing
41 MB files for printing

Veleanu & Hayes

This noteworthy and exceptionally comprehensive book features edged weapons dating from the Neolithic period to the early 20th century. These fascinating antiques come from all over the globe, including Europe, America, the Middle East, Asia, Japan, and Africa. Detailed descriptions and 897 outstanding color photos help collectors identify and study the characteristics, historical uses, and current values of highly diverse swords and daggers. Among the items showcased are tribal, ceremonial, and presentation edged weapons, Indonesian krises, and Borneo "headhunter" swords. Valuable information is provided about rare artifacts, terminology, and evaluating age and authenticity of the weapons. Novice as well as advanced collectors will find this an indispensable reference.

Chapman

Booklet shows how Gene Chapman builds his Mt. Man Folders.  Blacksmiths, bladesmiths and knifemakers will find this an invaluable addition to their reference library.  Over 100 photos and drawings show step-by-step construction of a "Times Gone By" masterpiece.  This folding knife can be built just like our forefathers would have, without power tools.

See CD796 above for this book on CD.

Fliegel

Associated with strength, bravery, and loyalty, arms and armor have long been decorated with great skill and care, thereby becoming artistic creations in their own right.

Beautifully photographed, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s superb collection of arms and armor appears here along with works of art from each period that illustrate their use. Chapters include discussions of chivalry and the tournament, manufacture and decoration, and weapons as technology and art.

There is a small section about swords, halberds, etc. If you are into armors, this is the book for you!

Brewer & Price

This comprehensive guide to making mail armor is laid out in simple, easy steps that even a beginner can follow. The Art of Mail Armor instructs you in everything from assembling your tool kit and making your own links, to more complicated and intricate patterns that will personalize and tailor your mail armor for a perfect fit and custom look. Learn how to join, enlarge, round, angle, fit sleeves and add style to an ordinary piece with various trims and inlays.

Kertzman

Artistry At Its Best! Not One Knife is Unworthy. Every Photo Is Exquisite!

This is such a beautiful book! The photography is stunning showing clarity and detail. But this is more than a photo book. Packed full of information on the knifemakers and history on the knife presented. Truely done in the famous Dona Meilach coffeetable style metalworker have come to love. Art of the Knife showcases, in full color-color professional-grade photography, 500 of the world's finest art knives made. These are the artists' (such as Raymond Rybar) art knives-sculpted cutting machines embellished with scrimshaw, engraving, gold, precious stone inlays, carving and etching. It's a parade of pearl, ivory, mammoth tooth, damascus, silver wire, exotic wood, diamonds, rubies and more. It will definitely be a conversation piece when displayed on your coffee table as well as an inspiration for artists and knife makers alike. Page after page, Art Of The Knife delivers!

Heavin

Excellent book covering a vast range of axes starting with the early stone hand axes of the paleolithic period. It began as a history of the evolution of the axe. Since the history of the axe is difficult to separate from the history of man, this study has become the history of early man's stone and metal technology as exemplified by his axe. Technology is not only an important part of every culture, but it also usually affects such other aspect as the economic, political, social and religious. The degree of advancement of man's technology is not only reflected directly in his tools and weapons themselves, but also in his means of agriculture, kinds of transportation, the sophistication of his buildings and the degree of his artistic development. These in turn can be directly affected by the degree of his tool development, which in many cases means his axe.

Good custom blades are a hard find, but The Complete Bladesmith will show you how to take a bar of steel and forge it into the blade of you dreams.

This guide to smithing world-classic blades is for the novice as well as the experienced bladesmith with this book you will be able to build you own forge, equip your workshop, choose your materials from the exotic to the mundane, and get to work.

Whether you want a survival blade, commando dagger, broadsword, tanto, or just a trustworthy utility knife, it’s all here. Enter the custom-blade world with an edge!

Chapman

This illustrated edition covers very interesting antique knives.  They are mostly handmade or reworked knives and edged tools which speak of the ingenuity of our forefathers.  Some were made by hands well experienced in forging and others are a bit of the rustic side but would have functioned as intended.  Country Knives will help collectors identify old knives, tools, their uses, and provide makers with fresh knifemaking ideas.

Kapp & Yoshihara

This book takes the reader into the workshops of four of Japan’s leading sword craftsman. Each craftsman has a different role in the manufacture of a blade. The craft of the Japanese sword is the first book in English devoted entirely to contemporary sword manufacture, and will this be of enormous value to metal artists everywhere, as well as to collectors and students of weaponry.

McCreight

The helpful book demystifies the ancient art of bladesmithing for contemporary knifemakers.  Following chapters on tools, set up and sheathmaking, the book provides 10 projects of increasing complexity to lead either beginner or advanced metalworkers into this exciting discipline.

Sashse

Siebeneicher-Hellwig & Steigerwald

Fancy Knives has more than 290 color pictures and offers insights into the materials used in making knives, their qualities, and various working and decorating techniques. Specialists form individual fields of non-machine-made knife making tell of their handiwork.

A special chapter gives the reader instructions for making his own knife. Included is also valuable information about steel, knife blades, handle materials, decorative techniques, making sheaths and purchase and care. Stefan Steigerwald, ranks among Germany's best-known knife makers. Ernst Siebeneicher-Hellwig, teaches knife making courses and is an instructor at the Bavarian Hunting School.

Patterson

Proud Looks and Brave Attire

Of all the riches of the sixteenth-century European nobleman, none spoke more powerfully of his heroism, wealth, and taste than his armor, clothing, and weapons. Drawing on the Victoria and Albert Museum’s popular arms and armor collection—which includes the armor of such notables as Henry IV of France and Philip III of Spain--Angus Patterson looks at the suits designed to kill, protect, and impress. Here are parade suits, lavishly embossed and gilded, decorated with plumes of ostrich feathers, and draped with colorful silk sashes, as well as swords, daggers, pistols, and gunpowder flasks slung from elaborate belts. Paintings, sculpture, and beautiful new photographs—including many close-up details—bring this very particular aspect of Medieval and Renaissance fashion to life.

Hayden-Wright

This is the preeminent reference on antique English knives, written by one of Great Britain's most  respected 20th century authorities on weaponry.

The text contains much previously unknown historical information about cutlers and their art. The history of the famous American designed Bowie knife, manufactured extensively in Sheffield, is explained and amply illustrated. The history of the American Bowie knife explained and amply illustrated.

Discussions present multi-bladed sportsmen's pocket knives, farrier's, smoker's, quill knives, curiosities, and actual knives presented to King George IV in 1821.

Heath

This book explains a more economical way of how to make chain mail along with the history of how it was used, originally made and its uses. The beginner is taught how to make a coat of chain mail with detailed drawings of how to "weave" the links and a basic lay out of how to make a shirt.

Barney/Loveless

Learn how with "the bible of knife-making."  Barney and Loveless give complete instructions on making high quality handmade knives.  Forging and stock removal, mirror polishing, sheath making, safety techniques, required tools and supplies and more.  Step-by-step information on making straight knives.  Tips from Bob Loveless, Bill Moran, Buster Warenski and Corbet Sigman.